The city of New York as well as the landscapes surrounding Red Oak, Iowa
have for many years been significant places for both of us.
Looking back and watching them from afar give new meaning to old classics.
Happy 4h of July 2021 !
Ron & Andreas

"The Star-Spangled Banner" sung by Andreas Jaeggi
O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On September 14, 1814, a 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key pens a poem which is later set to music and in 1931 becomes America's national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner".

The poem, originally titled "The Defence of Fort M'Henry", was written after Key witnessed the Maryland fort being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London. "To Anacreon in Heaven" (or "The Anacreontic Song"), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. This setting, renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner", soon became a well-known U.S. patriotic song. With a range of 19 semitones, it is known for being very difficult to sing. Although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today.

"Cityscapes: New York", paintings by Andreas Jaeggi
Landscape photos by Ron Rubey